加热外卖食品不安全 几个简单步骤避免食物中毒

Reheating a takeaway (or if you’reAmerican, take-out) may seem like a good idea at the end of a hard day – butmany of us have learnt that there can be a heavy price to pay. Around onemillion people in the UK suffer food poisoning each year, and it’s oftenbecause we have failed to take a few simple steps.

辛苦一天下来, 加热外卖食物可能看起来是个不错的主意– 但我们许多人了解, 这可能要付出沉重的代价. 每年英国约有一百万人食物中毒, 常常是因为我们没能采取几个简单的步骤.

Michael Mosley of the TV programme Trust MeI’m a Doctor uses a thermal camera to analyse whether reheatedtakeaway food is safe or not.

电视节目“相信我, 我是医生”中的莫斯利用热像仪分析加热的外卖食品是否安全.

As Mosley explains, the trick is to heatthe food until it is 82C (176F) throughout to be sure that you can kill anyharmful bacteria.

正如莫斯利解释的那样, 诀窍就是把食物加热到82摄氏度(176华氏), 热透为止, 以确保能将有害细菌尽数杀灭.

That’s easier said thandone: while the outside may seem to be steaming, the inside could have remainedcooler –hosting a pocket of living bacteria. It’s for thisreason that it’s important to stir the dish so that all the food is heated evenly.

这说起来容易做起来难: 虽然外表看着似乎在冒热气, 但里面可能仍然是凉的– 寄宿着一团活菌. 因为这个原因, 所以搅拌菜肴让食物各部分得到均匀加热很重要.

Even after having followed these steps, youshouldn’t reheat a meal more than once. Each time it cools down, you offer moreopportunities for the harmful bacteria to multiply, making it harder to killthem all off the next time you stick them in the oven or microwave.

即使遵循了这些步骤, 也不应当多次加热饭菜. 每次饭菜凉了, 就为有害细菌的繁殖提供了更多机会, 下一次把它们放进烤箱或微波炉里时便更难以杀光细菌.

This is particularly true for oneparticular takeaway favourite – rice – which can host spores of a nasty bugcalled Bacillus cereus. When left in food, the bacteria produces toxins thattrigger diarrhoea and vomiting. Unfortunately, these toxins are “heat stable”meaningthat even if you heat the rice to the point of killing all the bacteria, thetoxins will survive –and you’ll soon notice the effects of ingesting those poisons.

对特别受人喜爱的外卖食品米饭来说尤其如此, 米饭中可寄生蜡样芽孢杆菌的孢子. 这种细菌残留在食物中时,可产生毒素,引起腹泻和呕吐. 不幸的是, 这些毒素“耐热”, 意味着即使把米饭加热到杀光细菌的温度, 毒素也依然存活– 不久, 吃下这些毒素的后果就会显现.

If you do want to save your leftovers, youshould cool the rice quickly – before the bacteria can start churning out thosetoxins – and refrigerate within an hour of cooking. Otherwise you really are“playing Russian roulette with your guts”, says Mosley.

如果你想保留剩饭, 就应当迅速冷却米饭– 在细菌开始产生那些毒素前 – 并在烹饪后一小时内冷藏. 否则你真是在“用内脏玩俄罗斯轮盘赌”, 莫斯利说.